January 17, 2011

Sleep Evaluation May Help Identify Kids At Risk For Respiratory Complications After Tonsil Surgery

by ssavage

Performing polysomnography (sleep study) prior to pediatric adenotonsillectomy (surgical removal of the tonsils and adenoids) may help identify children at a higher risk of developing postoperative respiratory complications, according to a report in the January issue of Archives of Otolaryngology - Head Neck Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

"Pediatric adenotonsillectomy is a safe outpatient procedure; however, there is a subset of patients who do not meet the criteria for outpatient surgery," according to background information in the article. Guidelines for adenotonsillectomy, established by the American Academy of Otolaryngology"”Head and Neck Surgery, recommend that children should be healthy, have no evidence of obstructive sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome (recurring episodes of obstruction or collapse of the upper airway during sleep) and be older than 3 years.

To determine if polysomnography may potentially predict adverse outcomes following a pediatric adenotonsillectomy, Eric M. Jaryszak, M.D., of the George Washington University School of Medicine, Washington, D.C., and colleagues, examined the records of 1,131 children who underwent an adenotonsillectomy by two attending surgeons at an academic pediatric hospital.

Additionally, the 23 individuals who experienced complications had a higher body mass index (BMI) compared with those who did not have complications, with 47.8 percent defined as obese, according to BMI criteria, versus 29.7 percent in the non-complication subgroup.

"Polysomnographic data may potentially be used for predicting which patients are at higher risk for adverse respiratory events after adenotonsillectomy," the authors conclude. "Such knowledge is valuable in planning postoperative management and perhaps intraoperative anesthesia management."